Father Francis H. Beninati, MM
Born: January 11, 1928
Ordained: June 11, 1955
Died: March 4, 2024
Father Francis H. Beninati died on March 4, 2024 in the Assisted Living Unit at Maryknoll, New York. He was 96 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 68 years.
Francis Henry Beninati was born on January 11, 1928 in Farmington, Connecticut, the son of Guy and Amelia Spagnolo Beninati. He had one brother and two sisters. He attended Noah Wallace Elementary School in Farmington and graduated from St. Thomas High School in Bloomfield, Connecticut in 1946. He attended St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield for two years before joining Maryknoll in September 1948. In 1951 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and in 1955 a Masters in Religious Education, both from Maryknoll School of Theology, Maryknoll, New York.
Father Beninati was ordained at Maryknoll, New York on June 11, 1955. His first assignment was to Transfiguration Parish in New York City’s Chinatown, where he served as assistant pastor and was involved with youth organizations and leadership training. In 1957 he was assigned to Korea, where he spent most of his missionary career, serving in Masan, Pusan and other large urban areas. Father Beninati initiated a number of projects to care for refugees and the poor including housing, water supply systems, electrification, animal husbandry, a night school for working children, schools for the poor, credit unions and a variety of small Church communities. While pastor of inner-city parishes in the Diocese of Pusan, he also served as director of Hansen’s Disease Villages and Service for the diocese from 1960 to 1992. In addition, he was director of the Vietnamese Resettlement and Refugee Camp in Pusan from 1988 to 1992.
From 1980 to 1986 Father Beninati was assigned to the United States Region, where as Director of Maryknoll Renewal Programs, he initiated Maryknoll’s first Spiritual Renewal Program in Israel. He returned to Korea in 1986 and in 1992, while still attached to that Region, he helped spearhead Maryknoll’s entrance into Vietnam, where he taught English in Ho Chi Minh City.
In 1993 Father Beninati accepted an invitation to serve in the Korean Autonomous Province of China, an area formerly known as Manchuria, where he taught English, writing, and conversation in Yanji City. His first assignment was to the Yanbian Teachers College. From 1995 through 1999 he taught at Yanbian University; from 1999 through 2002 at Yanbian Nursing College; and from 2000 onward at the Yanbian Vocational Training School. During this period, though under duress at times from Communist surveillance, he helped out with Masses, confessions at Yanji parish and many mission stations.
In April 1999 Father Beninati was granted Senior Missioner Status. He concluded his work teaching at the Vocational Training School as well as teaching seminarians and Sisters and students in Yanji City, China in 2008. At that time, he returned to South Korea to serve Hansen’s disease patients at Kay Rim Village in Busan. He continued in this work until 2015, when he returned to Maryknoll, New York. Father Beninati was assigned to the Senior Missioner Community in August 2016. For several years he served on the Mission St. Teresa’s Prayer Partners Team. He continued to reside at the Maryknoll Society Center.
At the time of his 65th Jubilee, Father Beninati reflected that he was “grateful to God, Maryknoll and all for the opportunity to serve God in Korea, Vietnam, China and the United States,” and also grateful for the care he received from all the staff at Maryknoll.
Father Beninati is survived by his niece, nephew, and his three grandnephews. He was predeceased by his sisters, Marie Welby and Vivian Ziegler, and his brother, George Beninati.
Wake services were held on March 7, 2024 at the Holy Spirit Chapel and the Queen of Apostles Chapel at the Maryknoll Society Center. Mass of Christian Burial followed at 11:00 a.m. and was concelebrated in the Queen of Apostles Chapel. Father James Najmowski was the Celebrant and homilist. Father Richard Rolewicz read the biography and Father David Pfeiffer read the Oath. Burial followed in the Maryknoll Society Cemetery.